“Medicinal cannabis should be lawfully provided to people suffering from distressing symptoms in conditions where there is reasonably good evidence of benefit and where conventional medicines have not brought sufficient relief and/or resulted in unacceptable side effects.

Guiding principles and decisions about individual cases should be made by independent doctors rather than politicians or government officials. However, compassionate access should also be available enabling provision to occur in some cases where evidence is not yet strong but where the distress is considerable and has not been relieved by conventional medicines.

This will require careful and wise balancing of potential benefits against the need to maintain respect for the integrity of the system. Decisions about compassionate access should be made by a panel of independent experts including at least one lay person with expert knowledge.”“Compassionate access to Medicinal Cannabis would appear to be sensible, this issue should be dealt with, without further delay.”

Dr Alex Wodak

Emeritus Consultant, Alcohol and Drug Service, St Vincent’s Hospital

Visiting Fellow, Kirby Institute, UNSW
President, Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation
Director, Australia21